There are a variety of metal working cutting tools for cutting or shaping a metal work piece. For example, one cutting tool is a rotating cutting tool that is generally employed in shaping or cutting a metallic work piece material. Such rotating cutting tools are commonly employed in machining geometries ranging from generally planar surfaces to complex grooves, recesses, holes or curved surfaces. These rotating cutting tools include those where the tool body and the cutting edge are formed from a single solid body (typically carbide type hard material), or those where an indexable insert formed with one or more cutting edges is secured to the tool body with a bolt or wedge mechanism and the like, such that it may be freely fitted and removed.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show assembled and exploded views(respectively) of a cutting tool assembly 10 formed from a plurality of components. More particularly, cutting tool assembly includes three inserts 12 which are each coupled to a screw-on mill body 14, which is threadedly coupled to a screw-on extension 16, which is received in a collet 18, which is received and secured in a collet chuck 20, which is adapted to be coupled to a spindle (not shown) of a machine tool of a type well known in the art. It will be appreciated that the quantity and variety of components available for selection and assembly to form a cutting tool for a particular machining operation can be rather large.
It will be appreciated that in order to determine an appropriate cutting tool assembly for a particular machining operation, it is necessary for a user, such as a manufacturing engineer or the like, to understand the relationships between the tool holder, one or more cutting tools, and potentially one or more intermediary components. In addition, the user must have an understanding of the properties of the particular material or materials being machined as well as the particular geometry or geometries being machined in such material. With the large number of available cutting tools, cutting tool components and systems, machined geometries and varying cutting conditions, it is extremely difficult for a user to configure the optimum cutting tool assembly configuration for a particular machining operation.
In the past, a user was required to search through and examine multiple catalogs supplied by various cutting tool manufacturers, or to search cutting tool databases, and to select a combination of cutting tool components therefrom with little or no information about the optimum operating parameters of each particular component. Such approach requires a considerable amount of time and labor and is particularly dependent on the experience and skill of the user and therefore may be unreliable and may only take into consideration a limited number of factors which may affect machining of the workpiece and efficiency of the machining operation. Furthermore, even when the tool body is of the same series, changes in its specifications also may change the cutting conditions due to the combination.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a selection system and method that enables a user to select a cutting tool arrangement tailored to the user's specific equipment and particular machining operation that provides fast, accurate results independent of the skill level of the user.